Youku Tudou records fourth quarter loss, revenue gain

The Chinese internet television giant, which claims a 40% market share, hopes to derive half of its future revenue from native web content.

In its fiscal year end report, Chinese internet television network Youku Tudou reported a fourth quarter loss of $51.3 million and $.26 per share in 2014, compared with a loss of $4 million in 2013 over the same period. (all U.S. figures).

In its unaudited financial results, the company reported fourth quarter highlights that included a net revenue of $203.8 million, a 40% increase over the same time period in 2013. That was tempered by a slight profit loss of $2.3 million. ($38.7 million in 2014 compared with $41 million in 2013).

In 2014 overall, Youku Tudou enjoyed net revenues of $649.5 million, a 33% increase from 2013; and gross profit was $125.9 million, up 44% from last year.

The 2014 net loss was $ 143.2 million, compared with $93.6 million a year earlier.

Victor Koo, Youku Tudou’s chairman and CEO, said in a press release that consumer revenues increased 473% in 2014 due to growing multi-screen video user base “underpinning our innovation efforts and growth strategy, we began to diversify and improve the monetization of our leading brand, traffic and content offerings in addition to advertising” and said he expects to see further growth of the company’s platform in 2015.

Company president Dele Liu said in-house production business and content marketing achieved 178% year-on-year revenue growth in 2014. Liu declared the company’s long-term goal is to develop web-native content and video traffic to account for over half the company’s revenue.

Earlier this month, Youku Tudou launched Heyi Studios to produce original dramas and web content and announced the formation of Innovative Marketing.

The company receives 200 million unique online viewer visits monthly, and claims a 40% share of the Chinese internet television market.